
At this time in these organizations time, it was essential to their futures to boost Americans opinion of the space program. The Challenger was different then the previous missions because it was the first time a citizen would be going into outer space. They did this so that the media and the people of the United States would believe and have great admiration for NASA. The top executives in these organizations told their employees to be quite and act as if everything was fine. To an observer at both of these organizations dealing with the Challenger mission was that everything was perfect and right on schedule. When Thiokol and NASA first started to plan for Challengers mission, it was part of their core culture, which ultimately caused the Challenger disaster. An organizations core culture is the beliefs about the right ways to behave. All of these four aspects are centered on the organizations core culture. If an emergency light goes on they must know these symbols in order to fix the problem or abort the shuttle. For example, in the space shuttle there are different symbols on their controls. Symbols in these organizations are very important because with these organizations line of work, symbols could mean the difference between life and death. Finally there are symbols that the organization uses, which has may carry a special meaning through its communication. A rite or ritual shows a since of group unity and friendship among the organizations members. Since both of these organizations work together to attain the same goal, a ritual for the organization is the celebration after each successful launch and landing of a space shuttle.

Third are the rites and rituals those members of an organization conduct. At NASA, their heroes might have been Neil Armstrong, staff or any members of the organization.Īll of these people that were chosen to be heroes set the standards for that organization and conducted themselves for others to follow. At Morton Thiokol, their heroes might have been the founders of the organization or its top executives like Charles Locke or Jerry Mason. At NASA, its members retold stories of the previous space missions and being the first people to have landed on the moon. At Morton Thiokol, they talked about their product and their big deal, which they received from NASA. In the Challenger Space Shuttle incident there were mainly four organizations thrown together to form one, Morton Thiokol, Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center and NASA Headquarters.Īll of these organizations had the same type of stories to be told. The first one is stories, which is tales told among an organizations members.

There are four parts to the observable culture, stories, heroes, rites and rituals and symbols. One of the aspects of an organizational culture is the observable culture of an organization that is what one sees and hears when walking around an organization.
